Platt on Minetta Tavern; Dry-Pasta Taste Test

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt eats at Minetta Tavern (no word on whether he used the secret number) and finds the setting “properly chaotic” and the menu a “compact, carefully edited compendium of practiced brasserie favorites.” For the home cook, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld impaneled four discriminating palates (Cesare Cavella, Mark Ladner, Marco Canora, Steve Schirripa) to rate eight different dried pastas. The winner will surprise you and delight your wallet. You can serve your pasta with microwaved asparagus — don’t worry, the recipe’s from Andrew Carmellini. (Watch the video to see his demo.) The Robs also have the goods on the new liquor service at Momofuku Ssäm Bar: Beginning this week, cocktail chief Don Lee introduces a new brown-spirits menu where the ice comes from a Queens ice-carving studio. Also opening this week is Sazón, the Tribeca sister to Sofrito. The new spot’s “Puerto Rican–inspired menu covers traditional (if elevated) Latin Caribbean territory,” report the Robs. The high-low food events this week: Café Sabarsky’s five-course paired dinner with a private tour of the Neue Galerie show on German expressionism, and the return of the Red Hook vendors.